Dhaka Share Market consists of the Dhaka Stock Exchange or DSE, the main share market of Bangladesh. DSE is situated at the main market place of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, called Motijhil. Dhaka Share Market is the first of its kind in the erstwhile East Pakistan and its headquarter is in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dhaka Share Market formally started its trading in the year 1956 even before the formation of Bangladesh as a country. But how did it all start? Lets see how.
The necessity of a stock exchange first arose in erstwhile East Pakistan in the year 1952 when the transactions on the shares of the Pakistan-based companies were prohibited in the Calcutta Stock Exchange, India. It was a huge blow to the market of Pakistan. Thus to set up a organized share market in East Pakistan, an Organizing Committee was set up by the Provincial Industrial Advisory Council of Pakistan with Mr. Mehedi Ispahani as the Convener.
The exchange in Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan, was ultimately established as a public limited company on 28th April 1954 by 8 promoters (Mr. Mehedi Ispahani, Mr. Addision-Scott, Mr. A.C. Jain, Mr. Shabbir Ahmed, Mr. Mohammad Hanif, Mr. A. K. Khan, Mr. Sakhawat Hussian) with the name of East Pakistan Stock Exchange Ltd which was later (on 14th May 1964) changed to Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd. In 1956 the actual trading started in Narayangunj but shifted to Dhaka in 1958. DSE's activities are regulated by Companies Act 1994 and Securities and Exchange Commission Act, 1993.
During the “Mukti Juddho” (Liberation War) of Bangladesh, the trading of shares were stalled for 5 years in Dhaka Share Market but reinstated in 1976. The first index of Dhaka Stock Exchange was DSE All Share Price Index. The Central Depository System kicked off on 24.01.2004. Dhaka Share Market provides screen-based automated trading of the listed shares in DSE to the investors which started functioning from 10.08.1998.
Dhaka Share Market is still at its infant stage and has to walk a long way for coming into the radar of the Global Financial Market. The success of its growth is very much dependent on the performance of the corporate sector of Bangladesh and for this the economy has to mature a lot for achieving financial success.